Around 50 million Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine doses will likely arrive in Vietnam in the fourth quarter of 2021, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said at an online conference with 700 points across the country on August 2.

Long noted that more Covid-19 vaccine doses, including Pfizer, would come in Vietnam in large quantities by this year.

Thus, the health minister has asked localities nationwide to accelerate vaccination against Covid-19 and devise scenarios for higher numbers of infection cases amid the fast spreading of the Delta variant.

Vaccination against Covid-19 at the E Hospital in Hanoi. Photo: Pham Hung

Long also underlined that the fourth wave of infections has developed seriously with wide coverage and a high number of cases, requesting localities to conduct early pre-screening and screening for people who have registered for injection.

To date, Vietnam has received more than 17.6 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, from AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, Sputnik-V, and Sinopharm. The nationwide Covid-19 vaccination campaign, the largest-ever immunization drive in Vietnam, was officially launched on July 10.

Long asked localities to be more serious in enforcing the coronavirus prevention and control protocols, citing the slow response to the pandemic countermeasures in some provinces and cities. He said that the ministry has asked all localities to mobilize the engagement of private medical establishments in the work.

The Vietnamese Government on August 1 allocated another VND5.1 trillion (US$221.9 million) to the Ministry of Health for the Covid-19 fight, the health minister said.

He added that the money, sourced from the 2021 reserve national budget, would be used to purchase equipment, chemicals, and medications, among others, to serve the Covid-19 fight.

Back in June, the Government had allocated VND7.65 trillion ($333 million) to the health ministry to purchase around 61 million Covid-19 vaccine doses from AstraZeneca and Pfizer.

Over three months after the flare-up of the fourth outbreak, the most challenging Vietnam has encountered so far, the country has recorded 153,621 cases in 62 of its 63 cities and provinces. Ho Chi Minh City accounts for the majority of infections with 96,292 cases.